Ki Tavo – and Bible Criticism (of the Rabbis)

Deuteronomy Chapter 27 דְּבָרִים

The title contains “Bible Criticism” which I am attributing to the Rabbis, of all people. Isn’t that rather harsh, considering  Orthodox /Phariseeic Judaism  has given us the famous 13 principles of Maimonides, and strictly holds the Torah to be divine?

Well, we need to look at the evidence to answer these questions.

The above Parsha discusses the writing down of the entire Torah.

1 And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying: 'Keep all the commandment which I command you this day.

2 And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over the Jordan unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster.

3 And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over; that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of thy fathers, hath promised thee.

And again:

ח  וְכָתַבְתָּ עַל-הָאֲבָנִים, אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת--בַּאֵר הֵיטֵב.  {ס}

8 And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.'

10 Thou shalt therefore hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and do His commandments and His statutes, which I command thee this day.'

The above verses clearly refer to the Torah, thus all the law was commanded to be written down.  If there was an non-written Law, i.e. orally transmitted, the verses above would be wrong, and redundant. The verses are talking about the entire body of Law commanded – to be re-written on the great stones. Thus there is nothing that has been commanded to Moses, that remains unwritten.   This is the thesis of this chapter.  The claim of the Pharisees, is the anti-thesis of this chapter, and hence denial of the Torah itself.

Some rabbinic commentators have claimed that the verses refer only to the blessing and curse that follow in the next chapters.  However, this is definitively disproven by the opening verse of  Ch.28

1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth.

2 And all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

If we compare V.1 of Ch.28  to v1, and v10. of Ch.27 – they are almost identical.

The blessing and curse of Ch. 28 is not conditional upon keeping only the commandment of writing  on the stones – that would make things quite absurd. That single law was fulfilled, and if that were the case,  there would not be any room for a curse or exile, ever again.  The entire Torah is being referred to – the contract is encasing the entire Torah, which was written down. Therefore we see further in this chapter:

נח  אִם-לֹא תִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשׂוֹת, אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת, הַכְּתֻבִים, בַּסֵּפֶר הַזֶּה

58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and awful Name, the LORD thy God;

And

69 These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.

The Covenant /Brit is new, but Laws are the same Laws of the Torah.  Moreover, verse 58 specifies the words of the Torah which are written in the Book. 

These words and commands are the same as those in 27;3, all to be written on the stones on Mount Ebal.  There is no mention of any supposed “oral law”. In fact, any now written law is excluded by these verses.  Observance of the Written Law without observance of a single rabbinical or oral law  is sufficient, and necessary to enjoy the blessings.  Violation of the entire rabbinic law , whilst performing the entire Written law has no consequence as far as the Torah is concerned. It simply did not exist at the time of the giving of the Torah. To insist that the Torah missed something out, which is what the rabbis do, is denial and criticism of the Torah.